Defense Team Completely Denies All Charges
On the 24th, during the second pretrial hearing, the defense team of President Yoon Seok-yeol, who is on trial for charges of leading the 12·3 emergency martial law internal rebellion, denied the allegations, stating that "the specific criminal acts of President Yoon as the ringleader of the internal rebellion have not been clearly identified." The court decided to officially begin the trial on April 14 and to summon Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance Choi Sang-mok and Minister of Foreign Affairs Cho Tae-yeol as witnesses.
According to legal circles, the Seoul Central District Court Criminal Division 25 (Presiding Judge Ji Gui-yeon) held the second pretrial hearing for President Yoon’s internal rebellion charges at 10 a.m. that day. President Yoon was indicted for declaring unconstitutional and illegal emergency martial law, thereby disturbing the national order. The defense team denied all charges during the hearing.
Attorney Kim Hong-il stated, "Although the indictment lists extensive circumstances over dozens of pages, it does not specify when, where, how, or what kind of conspiracy took place, nor whether it was prior conspiracy or subsequent involvement." In a written opinion submitted to the court on the 17th, President Yoon’s defense also claimed that the evidence collected by the High-ranking Officials’ Crime Investigation Office (Gong-su-cheo) was 'illegally obtained evidence.'
In response, the prosecution said, "If you carefully read the 101-page indictment, you can sufficiently identify President Yoon’s (internal rebellion) actions," and added, "The court has issued several warrants for Gong-su-cheo’s investigations, so the claim that Gong-su-cheo lacks jurisdiction over internal rebellion and that the evidence was illegally obtained is unfounded."
The prosecution announced plans to conduct witness examinations for 38 key witnesses in the first round. They explained, "Assuming the defendant’s side objects to all evidence, we will prioritize examining these 38 witnesses first, and submit the remaining witnesses later." Deputy Prime Minister Choi and Minister Cho are expected to appear as witnesses at the first trial session.
The court announced that this pretrial hearing would be the last before officially starting the trial on April 14. During the first trial, the prosecution’s witness examinations of Deputy Prime Minister Choi and Minister Cho will take place. It is understood that the two spoke to President Yoon on the day of the emergency martial law declaration, advising against it. President Yoon did not attend the hearing that day.
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